I just had a discussion with my friend about fanfiction and how we tend to assume that women are the writers without any actual proof. Then I said, hey, I know fanfiction written by gay and trans dudes. But then I remembered, wait, I think I know one writer who just must be cis het based on his work. Anyway, all writers, be honest, who are you?

Please reblog if you're interested in the results.

Oh please answer this poll, it might be semi-representative if the number of responses is high enough

“unions drowned out the voice of the individual 🥺” I can promise you employers were not listening to the voice of the individual to begin with

They're gay....

If you’re unaware, this is not a new development.

City Boy #3 (2023)

written by Greg Pak
art by Minkyu Jung & Sunny Gho

GIVE GREG PAK A SUPERMAN BOOK AGAIN

In case people weren’t aware, there seems to have been a massive issue throughout Patreon. People have had their subscriptions cancelled and many had their payments flagged as fraud with their bank.
150$ of my patronage disappeared, that’s 150$ a month as a disabled artist that took months to build that I’m unsure I’ll ever get back..Gone. It won’t allow me to message anyone whose payments were declined.I also had around 10 people’s payments flagged as fraud, some have had to re-patron.

If you’re supporting Patreon creators I advise you look to see if at least the people you remember supporting are still there / that your payments aren’t marked as fraud, especially if you’re supporting for physical rewards you’re expecting. 

It doesn’t look like I have been hit by this, thank god, but if you support anyone on Patreon, consider taking the time to check on your pledges and making sure things haven’t exploded and unsubscribed you from things you want to keep supporting!

Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor #1 (2023)

written by Mark Waid
art by Bryan Hitch, Kevin Nowlan, & David Baron

To be honest if this is what Smallville really was like then yeah, Lex was right to utterly despise that godawful garbage fire of a town

And we should be relieved that Clark had the good luck to be adopted by the only two adults (And possibly two of the only people in general) in Smallville who weren’t backwards hateful morons...if his pod had landed anywhere else in that town he’d have grown up to be the Homelander, not Superman 

I dont know. I dont like this portrayal of Smallville. Feels at odds with the small place Superman super loves almost as much as his parents.

Like maybe if this was told from Luthor's perspective and there was some unreliable "And everyone hated me because they knew I was superior to them and not because I am an asshole" thing going on, I could get it. But this is presented as Clark's flashback. Clark "I know the name of everyone here" Kent has this image of Smallville?

Is this supposed to be "Smallville is a rural town, Ergo it HAS to be a backwards place"? are we really doing this?

I believe Smallville being an idyllic arcadia Clark adores is a mostly a post-crisis Byrne invention and IMO, a bad idea. I think it’s important Clark didn’t feel fully accepted and happy there (that’s why “they all knew he was an alien” headcanon annoys me BTW), and I would say that’s a fairly consistent part of his backstory. While he overall has fond memories of being raised by Kents and having good friends in Lana and Pete Ross, it’s been shown multiple times he felt alienated from others and was bullied (yeah, Man of Steel flashbacks may have played it up, but they didn’t make it up from nothing).

Is it really worse than the vaguely conservative Americana glorification? Kansas now isn’t the Kansas he would’ve been raised in if he came of age in 1938, today's Smallville would be in the middle of Trump country. Don't mean it needs to be turned it into a hellhole to not be Problematic, but much as fans love to talk about Superman being relevant, the idea his goodness comes from being raised in Smalltown, USA feels naive and dishonest.

I mean, in my exposure to smallville is that his isolation usually comes from literally having powers nobody else had, than from the town itself (and yes, some bullying, but usually somehow related to his powers somehow). And Smallville had usually been shown to me like... a town. with it's good and bad. Romanticized at times yes, but no more than many other things in comics.

I admit tho, I am also biased because I am of the "If Luthor is the one being bullied and it isn't his dad, chances are he deserved it" train of thought. And while I am not opposed to a more conservative, less friendly smallville and how Clark was able to still grow right despite that, I raise my eyebrow to that characterization being done in this context.

But I admit I never felt too hot for the "Luthor lived in Smallville" take on the character.

but much as fans love to talk about Superman being relevant, the idea his goodness comes from being raised in Smalltown, USA feels naive and dishonest.

This is an aside, but I kind of have an issue with this also. Mostly because I was never comfortable with the Genetically altered baby from a super advanced race to be... born good. I much preffer the kid with god-like powers who had to be taught.

Okay, but you get the powers are metaphor right, it isn’t supposed to mean nothing-and the mistreatment/struggle to fit due to his powers it is related to small-mindedness and fear of otherness. And it differs from comic to comic, but you advocated for the depiction as a great great place he would unconditionally love. Again, not saying it has to be a horrible place, but stuff like the above is fair game to me.

I think that train of thought sucks and is reminiscent of the creepy “you deserved to get bullied as a kid” shit you see every once in a while.

I never said he should be born good? I meant his goodness coming from his parents and lessons he’s learned from life. Someone turning out fine despite growing up in imperfect, or downright shitty conditions isn’t automatically saying they had it written into their DNA. Hell, you are the one arguing against Luthor being shaped by his enviroment.

Lex coming form Smallville, that’s a whole other argument, but this is Waid’s non-canon pet project and the guy’s a Silver Age purist, he was never gonna do anything else.

Overall, I just see little to gain from Smallville being a wonderful place, and plenty from being a fairly flawed one.

idk i think learning basic dogwhistles is more effective than any callout bc 99% of the time ppl dont even try to hide it and imao you should not need people to point out to you that a user named smth like wombynation is a radical transmisogynist or that valhalla8148 is a nazi like

It’s far from a complete list, but the alt-right terminology page on rationalwiki is a decent place to start if anyone is like totally clueless about this stuff (though, content warning, they do show examples of racist memes throughout the list, as well as the use of slurs and other things)

Just remembered that Dax canonically had sex with McCoy and said he had crazy fingering game

"Brock’s nightmare did not end there. At the police station, he was forced to show a jailer his genitals after explaining that he’s trans. And despite the fact that he met their criteria and has a penis, they placed him in a women’s holding cell."

A police officer brutally attacked a trans man for having an air freshener hanging in his car

Emmett Brock's life has been ruined after Joseph Benza punched him repeatedly for three minutes...

LGBTQ Nation

What I like is how it is so nakedly obviously why the cop tracked him (Not stopped him, his lights were not on and he gave no lawful orders)

Brock flipped the cop the bird when he saw him harassing a woman.

This, naturally, isn't in the report because that's not a legal reason to arrest someone.

a tldr of this situation is that a trans man flipped off a cop as he was driving by, which is an action protected under the first amendment, the cop stalked him, pulled him over, beat him until he had a concussion, then lied about it after the fact despite the fact there was video evidence. the trans man was then charged with three bogus felonies, sexually harassed by at least one other officer, and then put in a women’s holding cell. he has lost his job and will likely have extreme difficulty finding another and the officer — who, again, lied about an event that was caught on camera — has not faced any consequences. this man’s life has, as the article states, been ruined by the heinous, though unsurprising, actions of this cop.

fuck cops. abolish the police. and stop erasing the state sanctioned violence being perpetrated against trans masculine people. this is the third story of police violence against a trans man i’ve read about this year, and it’s only been from other trans men talking about it.

Let's all stop being weird in the notes right now, and instead shut up and put your money where your mouth is. I haven't seen his GoFundMe link posted, but as of July 26 2023, an update has explained he's still in need of assistance with bail+legal fees.

"You're going to miss out on all this media because of the strikes!"

Y'all shot a whole-ass Batgirl movie and refused to release it so you could get a tax break, constantly cancel popular shows after a single season, and remove stuff from streaming while refusing to sell it on physical media, so maybe shut the fuck up.

I hope every major studio and streaming service crashes, all your executives end up permanently unemployed, and that all we're left with is indie media produced by people who can see beyond the dollar sign.